Fury
"Fury" is composed of the fourteenth and fifteenth episodes of . It originally aired on April 7 and 14, 2002. A rogue Amazon, Aresia, recruits a new Injustice Gang in a scheme to wipe out the world's entire male population. Plot Part I At Gotham Biotech, a second Injustice Gang — Copperhead, Shade, Solomon Grundy, Star Sapphire, and the ninja Tsukuri — break in, led by an imposing blond woman. The woman removes a small plant culture from a secure vault, but on their way out they are confronted by Batman. He manages to beat most of the Gang easily (though Tsukuri is a handful), but when he reaches the woman, she defeats him easily and knocks him unconscious. After the woman defeats Batman, she walks away. In a department store, Diana is wandering, frankly baffled by the fashions in vogue among modern women, and seeing instances of men's rude behavior. Batman finds her and tells her about the break-in, insisting that the woman's strength, and a piece of jewelry he grabbed off her, marks her as an Amazon. Diana says that's impossible – she's the only Amazon who's left Themyscira. Diana being banished, Batman dispatches Hawkgirl to the island to investigate. She is taken to Queen Hippolyta, who recognizes the jewelry as belonging to an Amazon named Aresia. Unlike the other Amazons, Aresia was born a mortal, in the outside world. As a child, she escaped her country when it was devastated by war, losing her family in the process. She fled in a refugee ship, but it was attacked by pirates at sea, then sunk. Aresia was the sole survivor, and drifted to Themyscira on a floating piece of wreckage. The Amazons adopted her, trained her in their arts, and magically gave her super-strength. During the Gang's next robbery, of a gem vault, Aresia purposely taunts the Justice League on the surveillance camera. She removes a large ruby from the vault, then is confronted by Superman. When he withstands her attacks, she throws a gas grenade that infects him with some kind of virus, then escapes. Diana, arriving late, recognizes Aresia, then flies Superman to the Watchtower while Green Lantern and Flash pursue Aresia. On Themyscira, Hippolyta and Hawkgirl find Aresia's room empty, with a hidden chest containing maps of the outside world, and books on germ warfare. A short time later, Lantern and Flash return to the Watchtower, affected by the same illness. While Batman is ferrying back Hawkgirl from the island, they hear radio reports of disaster striking in the city: men everywhere are being struck down by the virus, while female emergency workers scramble. Part II Among the Injustice Gang, Grundy, Shade, and Copperhead have likewise been struck down. Aresia reveals to Sapphire and Tsukuri that her plan is nothing less than to kill off the entire male population of the world – which she sees as the source of all its suffering. While Batman, Hawkgirl, and Diana are doing their best to aid the emergency workers, Batman is likewise struck down. With him back in the Watchtower, and J'onn ministering to the male members of the team, only Diana and Hawkgirl are left. Aresia and her accomplices steal into a military base to appropriate a stealth bomber. Before they take off, they are confronted by Hippolyta, who has left the island to try and convince Aresia to stop. Aresia refuses, subdues Hippolyta and takes her prisoner. Diana and Hawkgirl are lured to the base by Sapphire, and both are knocked out from behind by Aresia's accomplices, unable to stop the Gang taking off, with Hippolyta on board. Hawkgirl finds a sample of the virus among their dropped things, but when she calls the Watchtower to alert J'onn, he has also been infected. Diana takes off after Aresia, who is planning to launch a set of cruise missiles into the atmosphere that will spread the virus all over the world. Hawkgirl joins Diana, and they board the plane. She makes one last effort to try and convince Aresia, who rages at her that men are worthless and the world will be better off without them. Hippolyta says that they are not, and Aresia even owes her life to a man. Aresia did not survive the wreck on her own, the captain of her refugee ship found her floating and held on to her while they both drifted across the sea. He died of exhaustion just as they reached the island, and was buried on Themyscira – the only man who lies there. Aresia is shocked, and asked why Hippolyta never told her about it before. Hippolyta simply said that she thought it didn't matter, "that he didn't matter" which she now regrets deeply for. But it is too late to reverse her hatred of men, saying that one man's actions do not reverse the actions of all men, and initiates the launch sequence. As she fights with Diana, Hawkgirl rescues Hippolyta and then smashes the bay doors with her mace, jamming them shut, and leaving the missiles to fire inside the plane. Tsukuri and Sapphire bail, while Aresia hits Diana hard enough to knock her out of the plane. As Aresia tries to regain control, the bomber explodes with her inside. Aboard the Watchtower, the male members of the League have recovered, thanks to Hawkgirl finding Aresia's notes, allowing her to synthesize an antidote. Superman and Lantern are distributing the antidote in the City. Diana laments that Aresia was never exposed to men's world, or she might have seen that some of them have noble qualities – then reconsiders when she gets a sight of Flash's manners. Continuity * Batman sends Hawkgirl to investigate on Themyscira, since Diana has been banished from there since "Paradise Lost". * Copperhead and Shade refer to their former membership in the first Injustice Gang, started by Lex Luthor in "Injustice For All" (that episode was produced before, but aired after, "Fury"). * Despite her scorn for certain modern female accoutrements, in subsequent episodes, Diana learns to adopt casual dress when not on duty. Background information Home video releases * * Justice League - The Complete Series (DVD) * Justice League - Season One (Blu-ray) Production inconsistencies * Hippolyta knows about Aresia's story to great detail, even though the captain who brought her ashore died at her feet upon arrival. * Hawkgirl knocks Tsukuri out by shocking her with her mace, yet she appears aboard the plane very quickly (when she came out, holding Hippolyta hostage, just after Aresia knocked Wonder Woman down). * Later, when Hawkgirl strikes Tsukuri just as Hippolyta appears, having broken free, Tsukuri is frozen in the position that she was hit, without staggering, falling or recovering. * Despite the paramedic clearly identifying the city in which the toxin is released as Gotham City, all emergency vehicles are based on Metropolis vehicles. Police cars retain their MPD shields, and officers wear MPD uniforms. * The first word of "United States Air Force Base" is misspelled "Unted". * After Aresia hits Superman with the toxin bomb, when he looks at her, his iris is white instead of the usual transparent. * When Aresia throws Diana against the wall during their first encounter in the alley, Diana's bracelets change color from silver to gold when she hits the ground. * When Aresia is explaining her motivations to Star Sapphire and Tsukuri, her lip sync stops mid-explaination while the scene pans to the left. * When Diana tells John and Flash to track down Aresia while she takes Superman to the Watchtower, the gloves John was wearing when he arrived have vanished; in the next shot, they've returned. * Aresia addresses Hippolyta as "Your Highness", but as Hippolyta is a Queen the proper address is "Your Majesty". Trivia * First Appearances: Solomon Grundy, Copperhead, Shade, and Star Sapphire (in order of production, their first appearance is in "Injustice For All", but it was aired later). * Diana wanders through Bergduff's department store which was featured in 's "Holiday Knights". * Hippolyta falls from the plane and has to be rescued by Hawkgirl, indicating that Diana is the only Amazon who can fly. * This episode marks the first time Diana is addressed as "Wonder Woman". * The episode implies Wonder Woman is either virginal or has only had lesbian relationships in the past. After she makes a dismissive comment regarding men, Hawkgirl replies "Don't knock it until you've tried it, princess". * This episode is titled after two DC Comics characters that went by the name of "Fury". The first version was Hippolyta "Lyta" Trevor, an Amazon and daughter of the Golden Age Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. The second incarnation was Helena Kosmatos, a young Greek girl whose parents were murdered by the Nazis when they occupied Greece, while her brother collaborated with them. She made a pact with the Furies to become the host of the Fury Tisiphone and murdered her brother. She fought alongside Hippolyta during World War II, who was travelling through time as Wonder Woman. Helena eventually made her way to Themyscira and was made an honorary Amazon. The character of Aresia bears traits of both incarnations. * If Aresia had succeeded in exterminating all the men in the world, she would have also inadvertently doomed the human race to extinction after one or two generations, something she either did not know (given that Amazons are apparently immortal) or did not care. * The scenes where Batman stops the rogue bus and Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman save the helicopter from falling use a remixed version of part of the soundtrack from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, from the scene where Batman furiously chases the Joker through Arkham Asylum. * This is the first of two episodes in which Batman's distance from his teammates is emphasized; in "A Knight of Shadows", J'onn confides to Batman that he would give almost anything to see his dead family again, then adds that Batman couldn't possibly understand how that feels; here, Hawkgirl remarks that it is hard to imagine what being orphaned at such a young age can do to a child. Both comments are obvious openings for Batman to comment on the loss of his parents, but he doesn't take it. * The "Lipstick Lady" (in Part I) and one of the "Paramedics" (in Part II) are voiced by Vanessa Marshall, one of the final candidates for the role of Wonder Woman before Susan Eisenberg got the part. * After the revelation all male members of the Justice League have been infected with the anti-male affliction, Flash is seen with the upper portion of his uniform removed, though he is still masked. However, it is revealed in the final episode of Justice League and later Justice League Unlimited that Flash's mask is in fact a hood as part of his whole-body uniform. * In the Elseworlds story JLA: Created Equal, all men on Earth die due to a biological affliction. Though this is more of a Superman story (with Superman and Lex Luthor being the only survivors and Superman being revealed to be the cause), the Amazons play an important role as they rejoin "Non-Man's World" and help address the issue of continuing the human race. * One of the nine episodes to feature the entire Justice League. Cast Quotes Category:A to Z Fury Category:Episodes directed by Butch Lukic Category:Episodes written by Stan Berkowitz